July 10, 2000
Santa Fe case may impact others
___By Kenny Byrd
___Associated Baptist Press
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--A Baptist church-state scholar says the Supreme Court ruling banning formal prayers at high school football games may influence similar disputes involving prayer at graduation ceremonies in public schools.
___The ruling in Santa Fe Independent School District vs. Doe doesn't directly address theissue of graduation prayer, said Derek Davis, director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University. "But the tone of it and the language included throws into question the process by which a majority vote names a student to lead in prayer at any kind of public-school event."
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___The Supreme Court has said ministers cannot be invited to deliver prayers at graduations in public high schools, but it has not ruled against student-led prayers that are non-proselytizing and non-sectarian.
___However, the high court's latest ruling could affect pending cases challenging the method used to select a student to lead graduation prayers.
___The Santa Fe policy, for example, allows students to elect a representative to lead an invocation or benediction at graduation ceremonies. The outcome, invariably, is a Christian prayer, Davis said.
___"Any time you have a majoritarian process, it violates the spirit of the Bill of Rights--which in many respects is intended to protect minorities."
___Davis said he would not oppose a student who happens to have a place on the program, such as a valedictorian, from "offering a religious message."
___"But that's different in that it is a spontaneous event," he said. Unlike the Santa Fe policy and others that are similar to it, "it's not a pre-programmed event."
___Davis said he is "very much opposed to this majoritarian process that is carried with a guaranteed outcome," a Christian prayer. "I've never seen it be anything else."
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